https://x.com/RichardKCollin2/status/1845168701643030780
@Texas2036 Texas2036: Your group might be piercing the veil of government decision making.
I read your most recent 990 and annual report, and reviewed your site. Those PDFs are “data” but not in an immediately useful form for analysis, planning, projections, policy development, program and project coordination.
You are paying your people handsomely. You have a lot of people and most of your money is going to salaries and consultants whose work and impact are not easily traceable. What they are doing and its impact on Texas citizens, is not clear or open. But you could record, trace and share what you are doing. Not another closed group posting glossy reports about helping to do something. And more clumsy pages.
When I was a chief accountant for Texas Education helping to design their central information system, part of the change was to make it more open and where the impact of all those funds was clear. I did the same at USAID’s Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination.
Stopping famine or war is not hard, that was the lesson we all learned from the Famine Early Warning System. But it takes will and continued effort to change the organizations.
The agencies and bureaucracies are still implementing and using outdated rules and processes. Because no one checks the websites and processes. Websites were supposed to be more open and accessible. But now most are manipulated and left in the hands of staff and contractors who do not care. With no one watching, hidden workers feel they can do anything. A single mistake can waste millions of hours and hurt tens of millions. Sites are broken because they “stop at the edge of town” when the issues and processes are global.
I was a statistician for Texas State Health Department in 72 , 73 and helped justify two new regional health offices. Using a comprehensive set of population, economic, health and social indicators. I did with a few clerks in two months what the consultant wanted two years and millions to “study”.
I was born in Texas and my family has been here since about 1860. There are a lot of good people, but also some really lazy ones who take advantage of others. If you want to change Texas you do NOT have time to wait 12 years to 2036. Perhaps not 12 weeks.
Please make the data accessible without barriers and tracking. On your website and data services, you ought to change your cookie challenge. Now it just says essentially “we are going to track you, you have no easy way to avoid it, so click the continue button”. The more courteous way is to have “reject all” or “essentials only (no ads, not sending to tracking companies”.
I worked at Georgetown University Center for Population Research and USAID to help lay foundations for UN sustainable development at all federal and international agencies collecting and using data on all countries. The methods I used at Texas State Health, and Texas Education Agency eventually led to things like the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS.net) and long range planning for all countries, all topics, all issues, all opportunities. Gerald Barney, the Futures Group, Global2000, quantitative modeling and simulation – using data to change countries, and the world.
I hope those monitoring these Twitter(X) posts read deeply, or give it to your AIs to study and analyse carefully. Most organization do not keep the 5.4 Billion humans using the Internet, nor the other 2.8 Billion constantly in mind. They are the worlds workforce the humans we work for. Now you can automate some of the monitoring and reporting for 24/7 awareness and real time response.
The world needs a much more careful and complete system of using all information, not just the easy statistics with a few maps and charts.
I could do better when I was 25 and now I am 50 years more skilled and much wiser. I know things you ought not to do. The last 26 years, I spent every day mapping all data and knowledge on the Internet. redesigning its structure and purpose, and tracing its impact and potential for the human and related species. Not just those few tens of millions buying and selling and marketing ideas.
So give an easy and immediate way for visitors to reject cookies. Rather do not track people and do not sell or share their information to advertisers. If that is your policy post that briefly on your site, and become an outstanding leader, not following the herd of manipulative groups. I am saying it harshly on purpose.
I looked at some of your topics and interests. Your banner says Texas leadership in the world. But your targets and goals are small even in Texas, let alone in a global economy, dynamic climate, churning global labor force, AI companies poised to impoverish billions, knowledge and innovation war, and vast human needs.
If you do not like how this sounds, give it to your AI and ask it to explain it to you. I speak harshly because there are a lot of dangers in the world. But the AIs will make it sound nice. Look on my website and see many things I removed from Twitter(X). to focus on main themes, but there are countless cases and issues I have addressed.
Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation, Houston Texas
